Who is Bia?

My name is Brenda. I am a wife and an aunt-turned-mom of an amazing 13 year old. My passion for cooking and recipe creating developed as an adventure in finding healthy alternatives to the foods I don't want to live without! I am an advocate for local farming and my recipes are inspired by what is in season. I strive for my ingredients to be from a mother or from the ground and minimally processed. Please try my recipes, critique them, and share them! Just stay home and cook tonight!
Showing posts with label peppers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peppers. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Soup Marathon Day #2

So I had this wild idea: Why not make a soup that tastes like jalapeno poppers! Then the brainstorming began and thoughts about how to make it not 10,000 calories. Well, I thought what about making it potato based? So thats the direction I started to take. So this is what I cam up with: Jalapeno Potato Soup. It was amazingly good and nasal-clearing spicy!


So here is the process!
Ingredients:
10    jalapenos, roasted then puréed
8-10 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
2 cups of hot water, divided (from boiled potatoes)
8oz package of Cream cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar
½ cups vegetable stock
1 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 tsp kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Instructions:
Roast whole jalapeños in an oven preheated to 425 until they are softened and the skin is charred a bit.

Meanwhile peel and boil potatoes until fork tender. To evenly cook potatoes, cut them equal size and cover them with cold water. This allows them to remain the same temperature the entire cooking time. When they are done, remove the potatoes from water with slotted spoon, you want to save the water. Add potatoes to food processor and puree, adding hot water from pot to keep loose, about 1 and ½ cups.
 During this stage add the kosher salt, white pepper, and garlic cloves and puree until no chunks remain. Mixture will look like this:
 
Add potato mixture back to soup pot, keeping it warm. Next, remove jalapenos from oven and cut stem off. I left the seeds, but if you want it less spicy, cut open and remove seeds and ribs. Add peppers to food processor and puree with the remaining ½ cup of hot water. Until no chunks remain.
Will look like this:
Add jalapeno mixture to potatoes and stir in remaining ingredients. Cook until cream cheese and cheddar have melted. Top with croutons!


Try it.
Make it.
Critique it!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Game Day Grubbin!

First off, let me say GO DUCKS!!! What a beating they layed down today!

Nothing beats food and football with my family! I have lived the last 14 years in Southern California, 900 miles away from my family and my hometown! Only a handful of times have I been able to watch an Oregon Duck game with them in those 14 years. Now that I have moved back to Eugene, I can watch them all with my family. So with a full house today, I made them some yummy food. On todays menu we had 3-cheese stuffed Anahiem peppers and grilled BBQ Chicken Pizzas on whole wheat crust!

Lets begin with the stuffed Anahiems! These were so amazing! If you recall my previous post, I shared about the peppers I picked from a garden my husband found of craigs list. Today half of them were stuffed and eaten up in less than 20 minutes! Here is how you make them!

Ingredients
15 medium/large Anahiem peppers
1 cup of cream cheese
1 12oz package of Queso Fresco
1-1/2 cup of grated Montery Jack Cheese (divided in half)

Directions
Begin by cutting a section out of the top of each pepper. Remove the ribs and seeds. We all found that we missed the heat from the ribs and seed, so if you like it spicy, leave them! Next time I will! Your peppers will look like this:
Next prepare the filling. In a food processor or by hand, combine all the remaining ingredients, minus 3/4 cup of the Montery Jack cheese. Stuff each pepper with the mixture.
When all the peppers are stuffed, place them on a baking sheet and top with the remaining Montery Jack cheese.
Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes and then broil for another 3 or until tops are browned!
Along with the peppers, we also had BBQ chicken pizzas cooked on the grill! For these I made the Food Processor pizza dough recipe I normally use, (You can find it here) but switched it up with whole wheat flour instead of white. It held up so nicely on the grill. Our toppings included BBQ chicken, tomatoes, spinach, cilantro, and cheese. They were amazing!
These pizzas got great reviews from my family, which mean the world to me! It was a pretty amazing day, Ducks won, great food, and my amazing family!